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Books

The best new crime novels (and a rule for enjoying them)

Jeff Noon on Peter May’s Runaway, Dan Kavanagh’s Putting The Boot In, Ferdinand von Schirach’s The Girl Who Wasn’t There, Eric Lundgren’s The Facades

24 January 2015

9:00 AM

24 January 2015

9:00 AM

I have a rule: to ignore the prologue of a crime novel, especially if it’s printed in italics and written in the present tense. Almost always it will be violent, unnecessary and will give far too much away about coming events. I like to be unsettled. I like a story to build at its own particular rate.

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Jeff Noon is a novelist. There are short stories on his Twitter feed, @jeffnoon.

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